Love is Blind
by Zip Goes A Million
Summary: Sort of a sequel to 'Several Storeys High'. Sybil and Tom in a modern day setting (although it isn't made particularly obvious) with a one week old baby. Sybil is absolutely exhausted and gets woken in the middle of the night.


Sybil was woken in the middle of the night by her daughter. She was beginning to realise that the whole idea of women being able to hear high pitched noises as a mothering instinct, and men not being able to hear them, was completely true. Or at least, that's what she had concluded from one week of being a mother. She loved her daughter and loved her husband, but wished her newborn would shut up and longed for her man to be the one woken in the dead of night so that she could get some well earned rest. She knew that he had to work in the morning, but that didn't mean that just once in a while he couldn't get up in the middle of the night to have some quality time with his daughter... well... that's how Sybil argued the case, but really she just wanted to be able to be the cheerful one in the morning, full of life and not at all tired. She wanted to go back to work, but knew that she wouldn't be able to go back for a while – not with a one week old baby. But honestly, each time she held her child in her arms, she ignored the part of her that wanted to go back to work. Instead she focused solely on the large part of her that thought that her child was the most precious thing in the world and often felt as if she'd never go back to nursing if she could be with her daughter.

So Sybil carefully pulled the covers off her, trying not to disturb Tom – he looked so peaceful, and even though she would've liked him to take a larger role in night-time parenting, she didn't want to disturb him at this point. She walked over to the doorway of their room and straight across the hallway into the opposite room – her daughter's room. The tiny thing was wriggling around and clearly wanted some attention. Sybil picked her up and rocked her gently, singing – or rather whispering softly – a lullaby, "Rock a bye baby on the tree tops, when the wind blows the cradle will rock, when the bough breaks the cradle will fall, and down will come baby, cradle and all." She hushed her child by singing, but also put her daughter to her breast, as she made the assumption that that's what she wanted in the first place. And it was. She was silent for some time after that, whilst suckling. Tom then walked in, and Sybil looked up from her newborn baby and met Tom with a kiss and then whispered, "You were asleep when I got up. How come you're up now." Tom replied with,  
"I sort of semi-woke up, and I turned around, and I was expecting you to be next to me and you weren't, so I thought I'd come and see my girls together. If that's okay?" he teased.  
"Of course it's okay you silly fool. In fact, it's perfect," Sybil replied, as Tom sat down on the arm of the chair next to her. Tom then said to his two women in a hushed voice,  
"You two are perfect. Do you know that? I don't know what I'd do without you." He then put an arm around his wife and stroked his child's cheek with a single finger. "Are you feeling okay now, love?" he asked the love of his life.  
"Yeah, I'm fine. The headache's gone and I don't feel as if I'm going to faint any time soon. Thank you, though, for looking after this little one all day. Well... yesterday," Sybil said appreciatively, as she looked at the clock and realised that it was 2:04a.m..  
"It's no problem. I'll do whatever I have to do to keep my girls happy," Tom replied, lovingly looking at his wife and daughter. Sybil saw her chance and said,  
"Well in that case, you can put your little girl back to bed, and I'll put myself to bed." She smirked at him and he did just as he was told.

Once she had finished suckling, Sybil sorted out her daughter with the blankets she had had when she was a little girl and then handed the now much quieter and stiller bundle to her wonderful Irish husband. She toddled back across the hall and collapsed in a heap as she reached her bed. She couldn't have been more glad that her side of the bed was the one nearest the door. She knew she wouldn't be able to fall asleep until Tom was with her, but she would often try to convince herself that it was perfectly possible. Not soon after, Tom came in and crawled into the left side of the bed. Once Tom was lying on his back, Sybil put one arm over his torso and rested her head on his chest. She wanted desperately to kiss him, to show just how much she loves him, but she didn't have the strength to do so. Tom didn't mind, as he understood that she must be exhausted after having the week she'd had. Sybil curled her legs in his and he put her arm around her shoulders to comfort her. He also put stroked her arm – the one resting on his stomach – to show her some affection, without disturbing the peace and quiet. But then, out of nowhere, Sybil ruined it anyway when she said, "How did I not see this coming? I knew there'd be midnight feeds and I knew that I'd be exhausted, but I thought I'd be used to exhaustion. I can do the twelve hour night shifts at work with absolutely no problem at all."  
"Yes, but when you do long shifts at the hospital, you don't usually have the problem of having given birth a week previously!" Tom laughed and Sybil did too. She tightened her grip on his torso, telling him that she loved him more than anything in the world. Sybil tuned herself into the relaxing rhythm of her husband's heartbeat. She found it strange that she couldn't bare the noise of a ticking clock in an otherwise silent room, but she absolutely loved the sound of Tom's heart beating through his chest. Perhaps it was just because she was loved him and she had no romantic feeling whatsoever towards analogue clocks, but maybe it was something different. The two consecutive beats, perhaps, or maybe the rise and fall of his chest was what made it more heavenly to be a part of. As Sybil listened to the pounding of Tom's heart, she stroked her hair gently, trying to get her to sleep, as he knew what she was like when she was too tired, and he knew how much she deserved a jolly good rest, with no interruptions at all. He then whispered extremely softly, in his gorgeous Irish accent, "You know, they say that love is blind and marriage is the eye-opener, but I think really that marriage still has pretty blurry vision and that your eyes can't be opened fully until you have a baby." Tom was expecting an answer, or another tightening of grip or perhaps a change of the pattern of intertwined legs. But he got nothing. He could only assume that Sybil was asleep. He whispered gently above her head, "I love you, Sybil. My Sybil. You are gorgeous and always will be. I love you." And with that he pressed a kiss through her hair and nodded off himself.

* * *

_I had a suggestion from a fellow reader, saying that perhaps I should do something similar to 'Several Stories High', but once they have the baby. I decided I liked that idea, but I've now decided that this story isn't as good as the last one. It didn't go to plan (not that I really had a plan, but this certainly wasn't it). It's just a bit of fluff, but I think it's in that in between stage between hardly any fluff and appropriately fluffy. I think to make it a better story I'd have to go with either much less fluff or much more fluff, but not in the middle as it ended up to be. Please let me know what you think, just so I get an idea of how this is going. I am doing more on 'That Was Then, This Is Now' for those of you who read that story of mine, but it may be a while before the next chapter comes out due to various different things. Comments and constructive criticism are much appreciated._


End file.
